Latest news with #RoelofBotha
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Blues Secures $25 Million in New Funding Led by Sequoia Capital to Accelerate Cloud-Connected Intelligent Products
Sequoia Managing Partner Roelof Botha Joins Blues Board of Directors BOSTON, May 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Blues, a leader in Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity solutions, today announced the successful closing of its latest $25 million funding round, led by Sequoia Capital, and that Sequoia Managing Partner Roelof Botha has joined its board of directors. The investment round will support the company's growth, fuel further product innovation, and enable Blues to deliver on its mission to help the world's physical product makers transform their offerings into data-driven intelligent services. Blues solves the biggest challenges associated with IoT connectivity, making it easy to securely cloud-connect any physical product. Companies of all sizes, from established enterprises to emerging startups, are counting on Blues as a key partner in transforming their businesses. Refrigeration manufacturers are adding connectivity and intelligence to track temperature compliance, reduce product loss, and deliver a fully managed service. Logistics providers are connecting forklifts, pallets, and products across warehouses to optimize placement, retrieval, and operational safety. Automotive battery vendors are improving battery life and enabling remote monitoring to reduce long-haul truck idle time, lower diesel consumption, and cut emissions. One of the world's largest suppliers of power grid components is enabling remote control of customer equipment to reduce electric demand during peak energy days and weather events. Customers are leveraging Blues' extensive experience to accelerate the launch of new products and services from idea to impact, with Blues helping them to identify and address the full suite of business challenges involved in transforming their physical products into intelligent services. With Blues' integrated hardware, software, and cloud technologies, companies can easily connect and manage their products wirelessly, unlocking real-time data to improve operations. Blues stands alone as the only IoT provider to support all major wireless standards (2G/3G/4G/5G cellular, Wi-Fi, LoRa, and Satellite) in a single, plug-and-play format with one simple Application Programming Interface (API). Whether enabling seamless fallback across networks or future-proofing devices against sunsets, Blues makes secure, reliable connectivity effortless so that businesses can focus on the value of the insights their devices deliver. With Blues,' companies can easily connect and manage their products wirelessly, and unlock real-time data to improve operations. "We're in an age of intelligent machines. The opportunity to reimagine every physical product around the data they produce, and to improve life and the environment, is staggering," said Ray Ozzie, founder of Blues. "For years we've been working with visionary enterprises looking to transform their businesses toward service delivery. This funding will help us to accelerate our growth so we may address the breadth of this opportunity." Sequoia Capital, known for backing category-defining companies, is excited to deepen their partnership with Blues, which is known for its industry-leading approach to embedded machine intelligence. "Blues enables companies to transform physical products into intelligent, cloud-connected systems that drive operational efficiency and unlock new revenue streams," said Sequoia's Botha. "The team's technical prowess and developer focus, along with a fundamentally lower cost solution, positions Blues at the vanguard of the embedded intelligence revolution." Blues has previously raised $66 million in funding. About Roelof BothaRoelof is Managing Partner and Steward of Sequoia Capital. He has spent over 20 years building companies in Silicon Valley. He began within the walls of nascent PayPal, where he joined in March 2000 while completing his MBA at Stanford. He became CFO in 2001 and led the company through both its IPO in early 2002 and the subsequent acquisition by eBay. Roelof joined Sequoia in 2003 to help founders build enduring businesses. In 2017, he assumed leadership of Sequoia Capital's US/Europe business and became a Steward of the Sequoia Partnership. Roelof is a Director of Block, Ethos, MongoDB, Natera, Pendulum Therapeutics, and Unity Technologies, among others. Previously, he was a Director of companies that include YouTube, Tumblr, Xoom, Eventbrite, and Evernote. He also led Sequoia's investment in Instagram. About Blues Blues is a leader in secure wireless connectivity, helping organizations to transform their physical products and businesses to be centered on data and the delivery of data-fueled intelligent services. With customers across transportation, health care, energy, and logistics in North America, Central America and Europe, Blues is on a mission to empower innovation by making cloud-connected machine intelligence possible for organizations of any size. With Blues, customers can easily and securely provision and communicate with any physical product, anywhere, enabling new sources of revenue and new customer experiences while also reducing costs. Blues solves the biggest challenges associated with wireless connectivity, making it easy to securely cloud-connect any physical product at scale. Thousands of organizations worldwide, from non-profits to startups to enterprises, connect their devices with Blues integrated hardware, software, and cloud services. For more information about Blues and its wireless connectivity solutions, visit and follow Blues on LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and X. 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Arabian Post
17-05-2025
- Business
- Arabian Post
Sequoia Partner's Data Compromised in Coinbase Breach
Sequoia Capital's managing partner, Roelof Botha, has been identified among the victims of a significant data breach at Coinbase Global Inc., the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States. The breach, which affected approximately 97,000 users, involved the theft of personal information, including names, contact details, government-issued identification images, and account histories. Coinbase disclosed that cybercriminals bribed overseas customer support agents to gain unauthorized access to sensitive user data. The attackers subsequently demanded a $20 million ransom to prevent the public release of the stolen information. Coinbase has refused to pay the ransom and is cooperating with law enforcement agencies to investigate the incident. The company has also terminated the implicated support agents and announced plans to establish a new U.S.-based support hub to enhance security measures. The breach has raised concerns about the security of personal data within the cryptocurrency industry, particularly as Coinbase prepares for its inclusion in the S&P 500 index. The company's stock experienced a decline of over 7% following the disclosure of the breach. Coinbase estimates that the incident could result in costs ranging from $180 million to $400 million, encompassing remediation efforts and potential customer reimbursements. Roelof Botha, a prominent figure in the venture capital community, has been a partner at Sequoia Capital since 2003 and has served on the boards of several major technology companies. His inclusion among the breach victims underscores the potential reach and impact of the cyberattack. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has announced a $20 million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators. The company is also working to bolster its fraud prevention measures and has pledged to reimburse users who were tricked into sending funds to the attackers.
Mint
16-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
Sequoia Capital Partner's Data Hacked as Part of Coinbase Breach
(Bloomberg) -- Sequoia Capital Managing Partner Roelof Botha was among the Coinbase Global Inc. customers whose personal information was stolen as part of a hack against the largest US crypto exchange, a person familiar with the situation said, signaling that high-profile executives were among the targets of the breach. Personal information about Botha, including his phone number, address and other details associated with his Coinbase account, were stolen, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing private matters. Coinbase on Thursday revealed that attackers had bribed customer service representatives in India with cash in exchange for access to client data. Bloomberg News reported that information including names, dates of birth, addresses, nationalities, government ID numbers, some banking data and details about when accounts were created and their balance were exposed. The thieves then demanded $20 million from Coinbase in exchange for covering up the incident, an extortion demand the company refused to pay, it said. Coinbase began noticing unusual activity from some customer service representatives as far back as January, the company confirmed in an interview with Bloomberg. That the attackers gathered information about Botha, which has not been previously reported, hints at the type of wealthy and powerful targets that the outsiders were looking to compromise. Botha is a member of the so-called PayPal Mafia, an influential group of former PayPal employees that includes Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. He joined Sequoia, one of the world's foremost venture firms, in 2003, placing early bets on companies like YouTube and Instagram. He became the firm's leader, taking the title of senior steward, in 2022. Coinbase declined to comment on the matter. Botha didn't respond to a request for comment. Sequoia Capital also declined to comment. Some customers last weekend received alerts from Coinbase suggesting that their information had been improperly accessed, according to the person familiar with the matter. The safety of crypto executives has become a topic of concern as the sector has become more visible. France's interior ministry assembled a group of executives on Friday to explain immediate steps the country is taking to end a wave of kidnappings that's targeted industry leaders. Those measures will include special checkups at the homes of crypto executives and specific briefings to them and their families. The meeting comes after the daughter and grandson of chief executive officer of Paymium, a virtual currency exchange, were the targets of a failed kidnapping that took place in broad daylight in Paris. Before that, the father of another man made rich from cryptocurrency was taken, then freed two days later. Hackers have targeted the cryptocurrency industry for years. Suspected North Korean attackers exploited the crypto exchange Bybit in February, causing a $1.5 billion incident that security researchers described as a bigger incident than any that came before it. --With assistance from Teresa Xie. (Updated to include additional context in final paragraph. A prior version of this story misspelled Sequoia in the headline.) More stories like this are available on
Bloomberg
16-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Sequoia Capital Partner's Data Hacked as Part of Coinbase Breach
Sequoia Capital Managing Partner Roelof Botha was among the Coinbase Global Inc. customers whose personal information was stolen as part of a hack against the largest US crypto exchange, a person familiar with the situation said, signaling that high-profile executives were among the targets of the breach. Personal information about Botha, including his phone number, address and other details associated with his Coinbase account, were stolen, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing private matters.
Bloomberg
16-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Seqouia Capital Partner's Data Hacked as Part of Coinbase Breach
By Sequoia Capital Managing Partner Roelof Botha was among the Coinbase Global Inc. customers whose personal information was stolen as part of a hack against the largest US crypto exchange, a person familiar with the situation said, signaling that high-profile executives were among the targets of the breach. Personal information about Botha, including his phone number, address and other details associated with his Coinbase account, were stolen, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing private matters.
